Spa maintenance questions-Sorry not a new subject for you guys ;)

[Neku]

I had a spa years ago and I failed at keeping the water clean. This lead to my husband having asthma attacks every time we used our spa. I’m ready to try again and I now have more time to dedicate to being a responsible spa maintainer.
 
I’m planning on getting a very small tub. A QCA Caribbean Star Spa from Dreamland Spas.com. It’s only 190 gallon. I’m getting an ozonator. I’d like to add a Spa Frog but I think it might be too big for my tiny filter that is 4 1/4" x 4" 10 SQ FT. Anyone know of a Mineral Sanitizer that would fit in a filter that small?

I’m planning to use dichlor. I like the plan that says to add a small amount after every use of the tub. This is where I get lost. How much should I put in? I think I’ll go with Renew Non-Chorine Shock, but not sure how often, once a week?

As for how heavily the spa will be used, of course when it’s brand new it will get lots of use. As we settle into our normal routine I would guess about 5 hours a week (one person 3 times and 2 people 1 time a week for an hour each time.)
One of the reasons I picked such a small tub is it will be no big deal to change the water often. I don’t plan to use the same water for very long, maybe 6 to 8 weeks. 
 
Thanks for any help. I see so many posts about spa maintenance I feel bad for asking the same kinds of things that have already been discussed but I haven’t found much about a tub this small. I’ve read reviews about QCA saying they don’t give you much info with the spa so I have to rely on the internet.

[TomWaterPure]

In answer to your question how much dichlor to use, that will be dependent on how much use, how many people, filtration, and many other things. THe problem with dichlor is it needs to be added daily as it precipitates out, evaporates, etc. I would recommend looking alternative products and reducing chlorine demand, check out a product called H2OFiX ... The company's (Water Pure Technologies Inc. / Their main focus has been water purification in 3rd world countries, helping villagers have access to safer water.

They recently came out with a patented hot tub product. It has copper silver ions, a calcium inhibitor, stain and scale inhibitor, ph anchor all engineered into one product.  It reduces the amount of chlorine (dichlor) needed and they have a 100% money back guarantee. It eliminates needing to buy 3 to 5 other products as well.

I know one thing I would not use any other product ... I've tried them all through the years, in my opinion this works better than any other.

I will mention that the head of their research department is one of the leading chemical engineers in the world and is chairman of the chemical engineering society, which is the face to the nation in education.

[Neku]

I was looking for test strips and found one that's 7 way. It covers Total Chlorine, Total Bromine, Free Chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness and Cyanuric Acid (Stabilizer).

Will that take care of everything I need to check?

In the past I only checked Bromine and pH, I just learned that there's both total and free chlorine and now I have to research that too. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all the information on spa maintenance.

[sorebikr]

I was looking for test strips and found one that's 7 way. It covers Total Chlorine, Total Bromine, Free Chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness and Cyanuric Acid (Stabilizer).

Will that take care of everything I need to check?

In the past I only checked Bromine and pH, I just learned that there's both total and free chlorine and now I have to research that too. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all the information on spa maintenance.

Make sure you keep digging through the threads here on the board - lots of good advice to be had.  Personally I'm not a fan of test strips, I found them to be inaccurate and difficult to read.  And contrary to the earlier post, dichlor doesn't need to be added every day. 

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

In answer to your question how much dichlor to use, that will be dependent on how much use, how many people, filtration, and many other things. THe problem with dichlor is it needs to be added daily as it precipitates out, evaporates, etc. I would recommend looking alternative products and reducing chlorine demand, check out a product called H2OFiX ... The company's (Water Pure Technologies Inc. / Their main focus has been water purification in 3rd world countries, helping villagers have access to safer water.

They recently came out with a patented hot tub product. It has copper silver ions, a calcium inhibitor, stain and scale inhibitor, ph anchor all engineered into one product.  It reduces the amount of chlorine (dichlor) needed and they have a 100% money back guarantee. It eliminates needing to buy 3 to 5 other products as well.

I know one thing I would not use any other product ... I've tried them all through the years, in my opinion this works better than any other.

I will mention that the head of their research department is one of the leading chemical engineers in the world and is chairman of the chemical engineering society, which is the face to the nation in education.

Nice Shill...I especially like the touching story about the needy kids 

[Neku]

Would you recommend a Taylor kit that covered those same things? Last night when I was learning about TC and FC I realized test strips were not the way to go. I'm not too lazy to use a real test kit, just cheap, and the test kits don't look too expensive unless you get the ones that do everything.
The plan I want to fallow said to add diclor after every use, not every day. I assume if I don't use the spa I need to use a test kit and see where the chlorine leave is and keep it at .5
As for how much diclor to put in I found a math formula to use.
Still wondering if I can fit a spa frog in the filter? Can it be outside the filter?
Thanks for the real replys and the add

[Sam]

Spa frog makes a floating kit that has a mineral cartridge and a bromine tablet cartridge.  This method is about as easy as it gets.  Just replace the cartridges and shock every week and you will be fine.  No need to worry about free/total with bromine.  It is also less dependent on ph for it's effectiveness.  We have some clients that we do maintenance for and put them all on the spa frog.  We go out every other week to shock and check ph, alk, etc... the customer never needs to do a thing. 

http://www.kingtechnology.com/products/products-spafrog.htm#SFFL


I do not work for spa frog.  There are other good methods as well that I have personal experience with.

http://www.thenaturalhottubcompany.com/

My 2 cents, for what it's worth.